Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

St. Stanislaus, Kansas City, Missouri

The parish of St. Stanislaus, at 6808 East 18th Street, was either never successful in building a regular church building (instead meeting in what looks like the beginnings of a school building) or it tore down the church at some point.

In This Far by Faith, there is a photo of people posing after one of the final Masses at St. Stan's and it appears to have been in this building. St. Stan's is now used as a spanish-language evangelica/pentecostal community of some sort, with a garish pair of gold-painted concrete lions greeting worshipers. I didn't stop to get good pictures of the lions because daylight was fading and I planned three more stops, but here's a picture of the church.

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

I grew up in Holy Cross Parish, but what I understand from H.S. classmates was, the masses at St. Stan's were said in Polish and it was just a small group who were interested. That's why it's so close to St. Stephen's and St. Michael's.

also, there were Masses at Holy Rosary said in Italian by an Italian priest who wasn't under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of the KC Diocese.

Barbara Powell

I Googled this but have no idea what a "Google id" is so am sending under Anonymous

I attended St. Stanislaus grade school and church from 1950 thru 1970. The church/school...church on top and two schoolrooms down with a meeting hall and stage below....was home to over 250 families..many of polish,czech refugees from ww1 and ww2. The school was taught by the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth. Very few Mass's were in Polish because only one priest in the area..Father Palecki spoke the language. Polish mass was usually a special celebration...Once a month Fr. Palecki would visit to hear confessions. The parishioners put money for a special building fund aside. It disappeared when the Bishop closed the church. Church committee members threatened to sue because the funds over 50K were not in the churches name. The Bishop agreed to reopen St. Stan's if the suit was dropped. St. Stans reopened as a "mission" (no assigned priest and missing the 50K....a few years later closed and sold....not a proud history for the diocese of Kansas City

I attended first grade at St. Stanislaus. I remember the big heavy wooden doors to the schoo. If I remember correctly our classroom was combined 1st through 6th grade maybe 8th. We ate our lunch in the classroom. I only knew at that time my friends had parents who did not speak English. I was always afraid to go to their homes because I didn't know if they would tell me when to go home and if I would understand when they did! To this day 55 years later I still have a small picture that I won for a little math contest. It is a priceless possession of mine to this day. I'm saddened that this little parish didn't make it. I have good memories of the school.

Hi! I never knew there was a school at St. Stan's. As a child, I attended church there, usually on Saturday afternoon's with my brothers and parents. I loved hearing the ladies speaking Polish after services; and didn't understand the tattoos on their arms until I was much older. You are right that the outside of the church left much to be desired (a school friend thought it was an abandoned and damaged castle) but the inside was beautiful. Father Faller (spelling?) is the priest I recall.

My great-grandfather, Marcin Ordyk was one of the founders of St.Stanislaus parish in 1913. I attended church and school at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Kansas City, Kansas. Some members of St. Joseph parish, including my grandfather, Łukasz Sajwaj, moved to the east side of Kansas City, Missouri, because work at the steel mills and foundries there was plentiful in the years before World War I. Thus, St. Stanislaus was founded.in part, to serve Polish families leaving St. Joseph parish. Lukasz returned to Kansas City, Kansas in 1917. Marcin Ordyk and his family returned to Poland before 1920. Thus, I do not know little about the fate of St. Stanislaus after those dates. I am aware that its baptism, marriage, and funeral records were kept at Our Lady Of Peace Church on Bennington Avenue recently.